Electronic gaming machines (EGMs), such as slot machines, video poker machines and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines with players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options. Where the available gaming options include a number of competing machines and the expectation of winning at each machine is roughly the same (or believed to be the same), players are likely to be attracted to the most entertaining and exciting machines. Shrewd operators consequently strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines, features, and enhancements available because such machines attract frequent play and hence increase profitability to the operator. Therefore, there is a continuing need for gaming machine manufacturers to continuously develop new games and improved gaming enhancements that will attract frequent play through enhanced entertainment value to the player.
It is beneficial to be able to join two (or even three) smaller LCD devices to create a larger canvas on which to draw and display images. Curving a larger screen is known in the art, but there are cost and reliability issues. An advantage of using multiple LCDs together is that the total resolution is higher. However, joining smaller screens is problematic due to limitations on the narrowness of the bezels of the LCDs, and the resultant spacing between LCD screens. Larger LCDs may have inactive area widths at the edges of the display of approximately 3 mm to 4 mm, resulting in an image to image gap between two monitors of 6 mm to 7 mm (roughly ¼ inch). The gap is generally black and is incapable of displaying imagery. A gap of this size is relatively inobtrusive with multiple fifty-five inch displays when viewed from a reasonable distance (10+ feet). However, the same size gap would be objectionable between two twenty-four inch LCD monitors operating as the main display in an EGM, viewed from a distance of eighteen to twenty-four inches.
A display transition device may be used to shield the gap from a viewer, such as the type disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2013/0157751 A1, by Timothy Loose et al., incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This disclosure describes a means for treating the gap between display areas to make it less objectionable. This is accomplished by creating a transition area that can be illuminated with an RGB LED or OLED system. The color and/or imagery for the transition area would be chosen to complement the images on the two adjacent LCDs.
The present invention uses two adjacent LCD display devices, where an inactive edge of one LCD glass panel overlaps the inactive edge of another LCD panel, thereby minimizing the gap between the LCD panels. One or both of the LCD panels may be cut and modified in this manner. Multiple LCD panels may overlap creating a basis for a horizontal or vertical panoramic display system for a gaming machine having minimal gaps where two distinct LCD panels and constituent glass elements come together.